Blue Solitude
by Nekocin
Summary: [AU, KaiRei] During a party, Rei could not find a ride home and had no choice but to ask for help, which lead him, more or less, to the mysterious Hiwatari.
1. Beginning A: Rei

**Title: **Aoi Kodoku; _Blue Solitude_  
**Author:** Nekocin  
**Type: **AU series  
**Genres:** Romance, General, Drama?  
**Warnings:** Out of Character, some Original characters (that don't have much purpose), maybe melodramatic, (please don't hurt yourself by reading this, if you dislike or hate Mao-Mariah; I don't bash characters, and please don't read if you dislike-or-hate the pairings mentioned here under)  
**Pairings:** (main) Kai+Rei(Ray) and mentions of Boris(Bryan)+Yuri(Tala) or Kai+Tala (because Yuri is such a sexy guy!)  
**Additional notes:** shounen ai, yaoi, inspired by my cousin's love life XP, I'll be using their Japanese names (since I'm more comfortable with their real names; though, I have no trouble reading their dubbed names in other people's fanfiction).  
**Disclaimer:** **(Bakuten Shoot) Beyblade**, **Beyblade 2002**, **Beyblade G Revolution** don't belong to me. Neither does the song "**Aoi kodoku**".

_(AU) During a party, Rei could not find a ride home and had no choice but to ask for help, which lead him, more or less, to the mysterious Hiwatari._

**(!) New note:** Finally the whole chapter is here! There were some glaring errors, typos in the teaser; edited them by the way. Please enjoy! m-.-m

* * *

**1. Beginning A: Rei**

**_VRRRRRROOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!_**

His ears cringed when some hotshot tore across the streets, passing the bus in which he was sitting, with screeching tires and unnecessary loud honking. Narrowing his eyes in annoyance he caught a glimpse of the driver—a kid, who -_most likely_- did not have a driving licence in his possession, and scowled. "Hooligans,"

He rubbed his sensitive ears before tightly hugging the grocery bags to his chest.

Even though he'd already settled in he still couldn't get used to the brash city life—it continued to surprise him. Like the many high buildings that made him wonder if they could really touch the sky. Or the city's large population that could form twenty-five villages or more, according to his calculations. Or even the 'troublemakers' that made him wonder why no one was punishing them for their deeds.

Though, he shouldn't be complaining—he _is_ living in a big city. Period. He's supposed to blend in and mingle within the crowds. He took a deep breath and cleared his mind, before staring outside his side of the window. A small smile tugged his lips.

_-What will be on tonight's menu?-_

Amused for some reason, he pressed the button next to his window, indicating that on the next stop he would get off.

* * *

He turned the door handle of apartment number 3432 under the name Kinomiya, entered carefully and closed the door behind him while habitually calling out "I'm home!"

No one answered though. His flat mate was probably still at work.

After toeing off his soft cotton shoes in the _genkan_, he headed into the kitchen and put his groceries on the kitchen table. He suddenly noticed something big pinned on the refrigerator's door.

It was a big card written in scrawny-looking scribbles, saying:

**"Rei,**

**I'll be coming home late. I have some business to attend at my friend's. So make sure you leave enough for me tonight. I might get home earlier, though.**

** Takao**

**PS: I know that you keep forgetting to look for messages on the fridge, so I had decided to write my message on this big carton. Neat, huh? (smiley face)"**

Rei grinned, nodded as if his flat mate could see his agreement and proceeded to unload the grocery bag on the table.

It had been a week ago since he and Kinomiya Takao met through a small add-article. _He_ was searching for a cheap apartment near the Institute he was going to attend, while Takao was looking for a flat mate to split up the monthly rent just because that way costs wouldn't bleed his wallet dry. Thinking back on their first encounter, Rei suppressed an annoyed scowl, while stocking Takao's refrigerator and stock cabinet.

* * *

_He fidgeted when Kinomiya's brown eyes scrutinized him._

_"Can you cook?" Kinomiya inquired suddenly, leaning forward out of curiosity._

Rei blinked, raising his eyebrows at the topic, but did not complain. "—yes. Yes, I can. Why do you ask?"

Kinomiya grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck meekly. "Well, you see—I'm not much of a cook. I'm afraid I might send you to hospital for food poisoning-,"

_Rei stared. Food poisoning? And he paled._

_"-so, the kitchen is all yours! Oh, by the way, can you clean too?" the other added quickly as an after thought._

"—yes. Doesn't everyone know a thing or two about cleaning?"

_Kinomiya shook his head and grinned. "Not everyone—not me, not really,"_

_He sighed. "Fine. I'll do both if you insist—,"_

_Kinomiya immediately gave him some friendly slaps on his back that made him wince. "Great! You're accepted!"_

* * *

_What will we have? Curry?_

He grabbed the nearest apron—unfortunately, a frilly-looking white apron with red heart-shaped pockets, which Takao had teasingly bought for him. He himself didn't really get the joke until Takao had burst out laughing when he had gingerly put it on to see if the apron fit.

Well, what did Kinomiya expect from him? A villager, who grew up under the watchful eyes of traditional leaders; a villager who grew up within a secluded area situated between high mountains, among animals and nature; a villager who didn't know the differences between modern robes of both female and male. What did he expect?

Of course, Takao didn't really mean to pull something crude like that just to insult his origins. The jab had been unintentional; it was something Takao was quite used to doing when he's with his friends. He wouldn't hurt anyone intentionally.

Shaking his head absently, he gathered the basic ingredients for supper, which he was about to prepare.

Oh well, he would get used to the city life after a few more days, he noted, coming back to his previous thought when he had been in the bus. Which reminds him—he should write a letter home. His friends were probably worrying sick about him. After all, he -_did_- leave without saying good bye—well, sort of. Good-bye letters are technically not equipped with the ability to speak.

Smirking to himself, Rei added more spice to the Indian curry he was trying to mix.

The basics were rather hard to follow at first. Most of the ingredients sounded alien to him—probably because he had never tried out over-spiced food before.

Where could one find nigellia seed; comijne seed; fenugreek seed; coriander seed? How could one recognize them?

Fortunately, he had found an old cookbook, containing recipes of foreign dishes, somewhere hidden and forgotten in his traveling bag that explained how to find the seeds. He'd (sort of) bought the book at the time when he was just a little curious twerp who liked doing grocery shopping with the women in his village.

No, wait, _correction_.

One of the women had bought it for him as a present, saying that since there weren't a lot of women around to cook for the whole village Rei might as well go help them (even when he was still a little brat).

Ah, those had been the happy times—being little, carefree, young and untainted of whatever the harsh reality had in store for him. He felt nostalgia washing over him.

A loud bang of the door being closed none-too-gently and "I'm back, Rei!" snapped him out of his depressed thoughts and he jerked his head back in surprise. His flat mate is back. "Come over quick! I've got something to tell you! Where are you?"

Rei rolled his eyes as he heard sounds of someone stumbling over the _genkan_, and struggling to kick off his sneakers rather unsuccessfully.

"Where else would I be?" he responded dryly and looked over his shoulder just in time to see his flat mate trudging into the small kitchen with his nose raised in the air and eyes closed, looking rather blissful for some reason.

"What's that smell? That oh-so-tingling smell?"

Turning back to the food he was cooking, he placed his palms on either side of his hips, puffed his chest proudly and introduced his new menu. "Indian cuisine of course—_pan_ with curry filling and potatoes,"

"_Pan_? You mean that's bread you're making?" Takao leaned over to take a closer look at the whatever-its-name Rei was preparing. "It looks—weird,"

And indeed it was.

The supposed-to-be bread was actually a large, round and flat pancake-look-a-like. He had never seen bread like this one before.

"—I know. I just want a change in our menu," Rei grinned, turned down the fire a bit and fixed his undivided attention on his flat mate. "Besides, you're my first tes-I mean-_guest_ to eat this. So feel privileged,"

"Oh, I do. You're simply the best cook I've come across so far. Are you by any chance the Kitchen God in your previous life?" Takao quipped with childish delight.

His face instantly heat up in embarrassment. "T-that's not true! Back in my village, Mao's cooking is ten times better than mine!"

"You're so modest! Which reminds me, do you have something planned for this week's Saturday night?"

He blinked at Takao's hopeful look and shook his head hesitantly. "—no. Why do you ask? Are you going somewhere again?"

Rei sighed. "Fine, I'll stay home. It's not like it's of any importance to look around here. I'll just explore the city on Sunday,"

"Woah, woah! Re-track. Re-track, will you. What do you mean by you're going you stay home? I haven't even told you the something I was called over at my friend's for," Takao pointed out nonchalantly and nodded, a thoughtful look crossed his face.

Taken aback, Rei smiled sheepishly. "Sorry,"

"It's all right. I assume you're free on Saturday. Great! Now we can hang out together and have some more -_quality time_-,"

"Quality time? But we see each other every day,"

"That's not -_quality time_- to me. I would like to be truthful to you since we are living together,"

"I don't understand. You've been lying to me all this time?" He eyed his housemate dangerously.

"Ack! No! I guess I should rephrase that. I want to overthrow the barriers that keep us so far apart. I can tell you aren't quite comfortable around here yet, probably because I'm still a stranger to you. To banish this—this—_this_ tension let's go have an all guy's out on Saturday night. I'll introduce you to my friends," Takao had never sounded this mature and intelligent before.

Takao's new attitude, unlike his usual teasing and childish demeanor, was quite overwhelming. Which meant he had to retrace his steps when resuming the character analysis he was doing on his flat mate, Rei thought absently. Analyzing people was just one of the many weird quirks being Kon Rei; very few known were perhaps his affinity with white tigers, his strange possessiveness of his beautiful long hair, his misunderstood naivety, his masochistic pride... and so on.

He wondered absently if he should refuse. After all, who knew what kind of people Takao hung out with during the weekends—maybe they're from the darker sides of society, random people who are trying to fool him.

Takao seemed to have read his mind and exclaimed, a horrified expression set in place, "You can't back away! My friends are expecting you! They are going to be pissed if you don't show up,"

"So I don't have any say in this, do I?" Rei pointed, his eyes twitching in annoyance. "Fine. I'll come along,"

"Thanks. My friends are such spoiled brats, aren't they? Anyways, let's eat. I'm hungry!" He leaned over to the wok and took a long whiff of the cooling curry filling, completely missing Rei's unusual mischievous smirk.

Ten minutes later Takao tumbled over his chair, struggled to get on his feet, while screaming "Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!" and (almost) threw himself under the kitchen sink's water tap.

A secretive smile tugged on the corners of his lips. Indian cuisine is known for its unique spiciness. He brought his teacup to his burning lips, hiding the smirk, and feigned indifference towards his flat mate's colorful cursing.

Spicy food might teach Takao a lesson or two about eating quickly as if they were having some kind of eating contest. He wouldn't be surprised if Takao gets stomachaches every day.

Thus, life with Kinomiya was just as good as entertaining. He's the perfect -_test subject_- to Rei's experiments after all—not that the victim noticed himself being examined like a lab rat, that is.

Within two days both the refrigerator and the stock cabinet were cleaned out, all because of Takao's ridiculously huge appetite.

* * *

Rei entered the nearest convenience store (that could only be found within 10,000 meter radius if he took the local bus) and grabbed one of the store's plastic baskets, before taking a random direction to the back of the store.

It's tiring to go shopping for groceries (almost) every day. Which reminded him to go find a part-time job before the new school year at the Institute begins and before Takao's wallet was thoroughly bled out (Rei's using Takao's money to buy groceries after all).

Perhaps working in a convenience store wouldn't be so bad, he noted while pointedly looking at the direction where one of the store's staff members was struggling to stock the packs of toilet paper on the highest aisle. The poor guy was too short.

Rei turned his attention back to his task. He threw several cups of noodles (with different kinds of mixes and seasoning) in his basket and turned to a different food section—only to have the wind knocked out of his lungs when someone small bumped into his mid-section and forced him down none-too-gently on the tiled floor.

"Oomph!"

"—ow—my back," Rei gritted out at last, feeling disoriented. Somebody up there had knocked quite some sense into his mind. His head was currently suffering the after effects of having someone knocked into his stomach—black spots, dancing stars, spinning and whirling.

_Spinning.  
_  
_Whirling._

_Ow._

The strange weight on his lap was immediately lifted, or jumped off on its own.

"Oh my god! Are you okay? I'm so sorry. I was so busy running around that I didn't see you coming. I'm truly sorry. Here, let me help you with these,"

Dazedly, he sat up and watched a frantic blonde gather the cup noodles into his basket.

-**_Max_**-, said the golden pin on the white, red-striped uniform of the blonde.

"I'm okay. I'm okay. It's only a dull sting in my back-," Which was a lie. The sting hurt like hell. He managed to smile though.

It did not look like Max had heard a thing for the latter was suddenly busy studying Rei's face up close. _How did he get so close?_

Rei fought back an embarrassed blush when he watched Max's eyes widen in shock. Did he really look that hideous?

"Oh my god! You must be the one living with Takao!" Max exclaimed at last and calmly pulled him back on his feet.

"—if you mean Kinomiya, yes I am. What is it to you?"

Max instantly forgot he had knocked over a customer and started enthusiastically shaking Rei's hands with his face beaming up at the other's.

"I'm -_so_- glad I get to meet you this soon! Takao has told me all about you--well, your cooking most of the time, actually. But that's beside the point. You are definitely not what I had in mind when Takao attempted to describe you,"

"—ah, Kinomiya talks about me behind my back?"

"Yeah. He rattles on and on about you that everyone starts to suspect that he probably has a crush on you or something," Max made a strange face for a second, and then went back to beaming up at the taller of the two.

"So—can I help you with anything since you can barely stand up straight?" Which was not true. "Oh wait, let me carry that basket for you!"

"No need. I can handle it," He protested and pulled the basket out of Max's reach. The latter pouted. "Thank you for the offer, though. I'll be on by way now, erm—"

"Max. Mizuhara Max. Sorry, forgot to introduce myself." He sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "We'll be seeing you tomorrow night, I hope. It will be fun!"

So he's one of Takao's friends. Max didn't strike him as someone spoiled and bratty—

"I'll see you later some time. Got to help my friend with those packs of toilet paper," Max waved and abruptly ran off.

He felt _'something wicked was coming his way'_ all right, and suspected it had something to do with Saturday with Takao and his friends.

He narrowed his eyes distrustfully at Max's retreating back before resuming his grocery shopping. The dreadful feeling did not disappear when he returned to apartment nr. 3432.

* * *

His suspicions grew when Takao brought two of his friends (Kyouju and Daichi) over that night to talk about something supposedly important. He didn't really understand the snippets of their conversations that went over his head as he served ice tea and crackers the guests. Something about best food, interesting contest, grand party, double-edged bet, sadistic host called Ivanov—

Nothing of their conversation seemed related, much less relevant in Rei's mind. Perhaps Takao and his two friends were practising 'ways of how the female brain works'.

He had read somewhere about women being able to talk about several subjects at the same time without getting confused—which was quite impressive and—well, _impressive_. He was immediately reminded of the many times Mao, his adoptive sister back in the sister, had attempted to include him in her conversations with the women of the village as they prepared the delicacies for upcoming traditional feasts. Which only led him to confusion and many, many headaches.

* * *

_"Have you heard about Ming Ya's newborn?" One of the High Counsel's daughters, a woman in her mid-thirties, spoke up suddenly as she effortlessly cut the pile of already-peeled onions into little pieces. She blew the strands of hair, which had escaped her tight bun, from her face and paused to pushed them behind her ears with the back of her hand._

"Oh yes, quite a charming lad," the woman sitting next to her, Mao's grandmother, commented while cutting carrots into small slices, squinting now and then. For someone who was trice the age of any woman in the circle, she really had keen eyes—to be able to cut carrots that evenly at such a delicate age was unheard of, unless one were to meet Mao's grandmother face-to-face.

"The Elder agreed to call him Long," Mao added eagerly, turning her attention from the pot of mashed potatoes she was stirring to Rei, who was sitting next to her. "Isn't that right?"

"—yes. Shui Long or something," Rei said quietly as he carefully peeled the onions, eyes watering every two to four seconds before blinking his tears away. Why exactly was he sitting there, surrounded by all the women of the village, again?

"Shui Long—Water Dragon. That's quite a powerful name! The Water God will bestow us with lots of water this whole year, I hope. Tsk," Mao's grandmother's neighbour commented approvingly, habitually clicking her tongue as if something was stuck between her teeth while crushing the already-peeled potatoes into mash with the help of her large wooden spoon. She scooped the crushed potatoes in the spoon and leaned over to her left to pass the goo to Mao's pot.

"I heard he was named after Ya Ming's great-great grandfather, the 4th Head during the second Dynasty. Right, Rei?" Mao accepted the goo, threw in a cup of water into the pot, before resuming her stirring. She then turned her eager eyes to Rei.

"Uhm-," Before he could answer, Mao's only girl friend MingMing interrupted him with an enthusiastic, "Oh! Now I remember! My great grandmother had always talked about Aunt Ya Ming's great-great grandfather when she had been still alive!"

Then all the women started to babble at the same time, leaving Rei no room to answer Mao's question. And it didn't look like Mao minded. She was too busy discussing something-or-another with one of the women, whom Rei had last checked one of the rice-planting females.

"Tsk. Had she been his pupil?"

"I don't suppose that's even true,"

Damn. He'd cut himself—again. Quickly grabbing the injured finger, he pressed as many drips of blood out of the wound, letting them fall on the ground just to prevent any blood infections, and slipped his injured finger into his mouth.

The women continued to chatter at the same time, forgetting his presence completely.

"So they were a couple? How shameful!"

"She wasn't even married at that time, I think. It was quite a surprise when she confessed she liked your great-great uncle—a man twice her age, wasn't it LanLan?"

"No, that's not true. You must have heard wrong. She was his pupil,"

"Excuse me? Women back in those golden days of mine didn't get privileges of being men's pupils like nowadays. So what made you, young ladies, think that the generation before mine had any freedom for being one?"

"I suppose that's true, grandma. Then how does MingMing's great grandmother relate with Aunt Ya Ming's great-great grandfather?" 

"They weren't even related in a sense. Not really. I figured she must have been his apprentice of sorts at some point,"

"Tsk. So she had been his concubine?"

"That cannot be right. Being a female apprentice of a man usually mean she was his servant girl of sorts,"

"No she wasn't! Aunt Ya Ming's great-great grandfather had left some important notes concerning the ancient scripts of First Neko-jin to ever walked in the mountains in her hands!"

"Tsk. I thought it had been a lie when your mother told me about the hidden scripts of Neko-jin in her house, MingMing. But now that you mentioned it—how does the young Shui Long look like?"

"Healthy and loud as usual, grandma,"

"That's barbarous! He should be quiet and meek! Like a lamb,"

"Tsk. You forget he has only one-sixth of Neko-jin blood running in his veins,"

"Don't talk like that! You're already one-fifth!"

"There's nothing to worry about. Once he reaches his fifteenth year, his roots will dominate those barbaric characteristics. Neko-jin blood is stronger than you lot think. Even if there's only a one-millionth running within your body,"

"Tsk. I can't believe Ya Ming chose to marry a man outside our tribe. Tsk,"

"But you can't help but admire how good they look together, right Lan?"

"—I suppose you can say that. The outsider doesn't look bad himself—,"

"Tsk. Hmhmhm. I can hardly blame the poor girl. All the men here are either -trice- her age, already bonded or too young to even spend a proper wedding night with!"

"I know. But still! If my grandson had been born a few autumns earlier, I would have happily asked for Ya Ming's hand. She's quite a loveable help in the kitchen,"

"Grandma! Don't talk like that! What if Rai heard you?"

"He wouldn't do anything to me. I -**am**- after all your grand**mother**. Your grandfather would have agreed to the marriage anyways,"

"Tsk. You youngsters nowadays want -love-, want what-is-it-they-call-it-again ro-ro-romanzu-zu? Anyways, tsk. You youngsters are seeking love, ro-ro-romanzu-zu and eternal beauty. Tsk. You lot are so cushioned within your mother's embraces nowadays, never knowing that you are spilling so much energy and hoping the unreachable dreams,"

"Why won't you lads grow any faster?"

Rei blinked when all eyes were suddenly on him. "Yes?" He cleared his throat nervously, hiding his finger behind his back.

"I'm sure Rei would've made quite a wonderful husband!"

"Oh yes, he will. He cooks. He sews. He cuts firewood. He is a fierce fighter and so on,"

"If I weren't so bonded with my husband, I would have immediately put my claim on you!"

"I'm afraid you have to stand in line before you can claim Rei,"

"Don't be so haughty about it, Mao. After all Rei is really the perfect husband, won't you say so? Tsk,"

--he left the cooking area with a pounding headache, feeling confused and embarrassed. What exactly were the women talking about again? He had lost track as soon as they began with the relation between someone's great-great grandfather and someone's great grandmother, uncovering some sort of secret of their Neko-jin roots.

So confusing.

* * *

He was having a headache as he was reminded of the past.

Bringing a hand up to rub his temples, Rei fought the sudden dizziness and plopped down next to Takao on the large cough for three people with a long sigh, closing his eyes.

"Aw, geez, Rei. Don't get sick on me. You should've told me you were feeling unwell. I could've gotten the snacks myself," Takao remarked, suddenly touching Rei's forehead to determine his body heat.

Rei shook his head, gently pushing the hand aside. "I'm fine. Just dizziness. Probably because of the weather,"

Some of his hair came loose from his ponytail.

"I thought it would take a week for you to adjust living under this weather," He could feel his flat mate pouting.

"You seem to have -_conveniently_- forgotten I had lived my whole life in the village where it hardly gets this cold," He pointed out dryly and pushed back some strands of hair that were tickling his face with a long sigh.

"I did not forget!" Takao retorted defensively, before adding, "And don't sigh like that. You will age much faster when sighing after every few seconds"

"Doesn't matter," He deliberately sighed again just to annoy his flat mate before nonchalantly throwing his right arm over his closed eyes. _("ARGH!" came Takao's frustrated scream.)_

"Besides, I still have nine lives left," He added offhandedly and smirked. What would Takao's reaction be if he explained what exactly a Neko-jin was supposed to be?

He had expected curiosity, confusion or even an outright disbelief.

However, he didn't expect an enthusiastic "Cool! You are ours in this life then!" from Takao.

Rei growled when those words finally sank in.

"Takao, he is not an object to lay claim over. We should ask him properly whether he wants to join us or not," One of Takao's friends (Kyouju, was it?), who had been silent for the most part, admonished.

He frowned, not liking whatever he was hearing. What exactly were they getting to?

"It's no big deal. I've already decided he could join," Takao grinned.

Rei lifted his arm from his eyes and looked up curiously at his flat mate.

"Don't be such a hypocrite, Takao! By doing that you're forcing him into something he might not want to do," Takao's other friend (Daichi?) snarled.

"Says the one who lies his way around,"

Rei watched on, as Daichi turned red either out of embarrassment or anger—he couldn't tell. Daichi's eyes were suddenly on him, silently glaring for some reasons unknown.

"Well, don't you guys want a fifth member?" Takao crossed his arms and glared all-knowingly at his friends.

"It is required to have at least five or more people in one group," Kyouju cited.

Rei's curiosity stretched on. The uneasiness he had felt after meeting Max resurfaced as he watched his flat mate interact with the guests.

"This is our chance! We won't find anyone like Rei anywhere else but here," Takao heroically punched his fist in the air.

"What do you mean 'anyone like me'? You were talking about me all this time?" Rei cut in; his curiosity getting the best of him as he leaned in. Takao's friends froze in their seats instantly.

"What's wrong?" he inquired.

Takao dropped his fist and smiled sheepishly back at him. "—oops,"

He raised his eyebrows at his flat mate, patiently waiting for an explanation. Which didn't come out as smoothly he had hoped it would be.

"You might as well tell me what is going on," Rei sighed at last.

"Well—you see, Rei—I haven't been thoroughly honest with you—," Takao trailed off, hanging his head in shame.

"—go on,"

"—well, you see—well, remember what I had told you the other day about my job?"

Rei crossed his arms. "You told me you worked under a friend and-,"

"-and I haven't specifically told you what exactly my job was," Takao rudely cut in. Rei bristled slightly. "Well—that's the first lie,"

"Where exactly do I fit in your lie?" He managed to sound calm, never betraying whether he was angry or disappointed at his flat mate.

"You see—well—," Takao shot helpless looks in both his friends' directions. Neither one showed any sympathy though. Takao scowled at them.

"—I'm not exactly a bad cook myself—and I work under Ivanov's guidance—and—,"

"And?" Rei pressed on.

"Well, there's this -_little_- cooking contest we will be having at my boss'—uh—_banquet_ and we're short on one member. You are our only chance," Takao immediately clasped his hands together and looked up pleadingly at Rei.

"Please, Rei. Please say you're all right with this. Please say you don't mind entering the contest with us—you don't have to do a lot of stuff. Just cut the veggies. The fruits. Anything easy. Please, Rei, I promise I won't be hard on you as the Head Chef. I promise I'll cook you for a whole month, or better yet—treat you for a whole month if I have to. Please say yes, please! My work is at stake!"

Silence followed afterward. No one said a word, as Rei tried to comprehend everything he had heard so far.

Kyouju and Daichi were still sitting rigidly in their seats. Both watching Rei while holding their breaths as if their potential fifth member—their last chance—would condemn them to hell itself with a simple _'yes-or-no'_ answer.

Takao was probably the most vulnerable one in the room for he was without-question on the receiving end of Rei's unusual, but furious citrine eyes.

"You know I can just poison you with tonight's supper, don't you?" He spoke up in a relatively calm and yet chilly voice, with burning citrine eyes that regarded Takao, ready to burn holes in the other's head.

**– END 1. Beginning A: Rei –**

**(To be continued in: 2. Beginning B: Rei)**

**Notes:**  
-"**Aoi Kodoku**" does mean "**Blue solitude**". Originally, this story was titled "**Incomplete**" because I started writing this while the song was being played on the radio. (So sue me, I like the song!) I've changed it to "Aoi Kodoku", because "Incomplete" sounds way too cheesy every time I read the intro over. "Aoi Kodoku" is a very good group song sung by famous Japanese voice actors. It's quite sad, though, because of the j-pop upbeat-ness, some of you might not even know it's a sad song.  
- "**genkan**" - Japanese homes always have a genkan. It's the place near the front door where everyone should take off their shoes, before entering the house and slipping on indoor slippers. That way the chances of their indoors getting dirtied is slim to none.  
- "**pan**" - "bread" in Japanese.  
- "**roti**" - the abovementioned food is called "roti". It's really a pancake-look-a-like, only with spicy filling (chicken, potatoes, greens etcetera) and lots of curry (it's delicious if one tries it out for the first time). A friend mentioned that 'roti' is 'bread' to the Indians.  
- **(EAST) Indian curry** (or also known as '**masala**') is really spicier than any other curry. Though, it doesn't technically taste -_that_- pepper-ish that requires one to gurgle down water in one go. Just add pepper or black pepper powder and the whole curry is at its hottest (to those who aren't used to spiciness, that is)  
- _"about the female brains-section"_ - I read this somewhere in a Dutch Psychology book; thought it was neat to emphasize how confused Rei was about Takao's conversation with his friends, so I added it. Which doesn't mean I'm an extreme feminist.  
- _Cultural note:_ Chinese people are very fond of giving their sons the name "Dragon" (Long), because the name represents wealth, might, happiness, strength, wisdom and all those features they have assigned the Dragon. But that doesn't mean every Chinese boy is named Long...  
Uhm... and don't dwell too deep into the conversations of the women with Rei getting confused. It's just a spur of a moment thing (It hadn't been my intention to drag that section; sorry about that).  
- **Citrine eyes** - I'm not exactly sure which kind of color Rei's eyes could be perfectly pinpointed to, even after reading so many Rei-fiction (where everyone seem to like giving his eyes the word 'golden'). I called them 'citrine' instead, just because I'm being a bit rebellious to clichés. **:sweatdrop:**

**TheNekoTalks:**

**:cries buckets of tears:** I've finally come up with a story! It took -_this_- long (2-3 years?) for me to enter this fandom. (How pathetic!) **(deleted previous message)**  
For now, I hope I'll be able to update this as soon as I can (with all my other stories)—you see, when the new school year begins I'll be a Senior. Need to work very hard to get high credits to graduate to University-slash-College-slash-whatever higher school there is after VWO.

**Thank you for taking your time re-reading! I apologize for the long notes and for anything that's wrong about abovementioned information.**

**.:Nekocin:.**


	2. Beginning B: Rei

**Aoi Kodoku**; _Blue Solitude_  
**Author:** Nekocin  
**Pairing:** (here) very mild Boris(Bryan)+Yuri(Tala)  
**Warnings:** some slight violence, Out of Character-ness, weird humor, random culinary stuff (ignore them if you must, because this isn't a culinary yaoi-_slash_-shounen ai fanfiction)  
**Disclaimer: **see previous chapter

**_(!) Note: _**For those who had only read the teaser of the first chapter, please re-read the previous chapter to understand what's going on. I apologize for any inconveniences because I dislike to re-read stories-or-chapters myself (except for the ones I truly adore).

Uwa my longest chapter so far. **:heart:**

* * *

**2. Beginning B: Rei**

_7:15 PM (19:15)_

_TING! _

He purposefully pressed the top button of the time much harder than needed.

The other members in his group winced and shrank away, choosing to stand as far away as they could from their agitated fifth member.

A series of rapid, if not, effortless chopping tempted them (and some interested guests that were attending Ivanov's banquet) to risk glances in Rei's direction. Even with an irritated look on his face, he was speedily completing all the ingredients, which he was supposed to prepare within, roughly, 3 minutes (without cutting himself with the big kitchen knife). He was handling it as if he was born to wield the knife like a Professional Chef would.

Which worried the rest of his group gravely. What if Rei were to kill them in their sleep with that big knife—or better yet, what if he were to kill them in the kitchen while making it look like an accident?

They shivered, hoping that they weren't going to be Rei's unfortunate victims.  
'How the heck did Takao pass the title of Substitute Chef to Rei?' was the question that echoed in their minds as they tried to recollect what had occurred that same morning.

That morning, they were half-expecting to find Takao's body in his apartment and a smug Rei, when Max went to pick them up—after all, Rei did mention he would poison their friend. And he seemed to be quite serious about it too.

Instead, they had found a dramatically starving Takao and a scary-looking Rei—both looking as if they hadn't had a good night sleep the night before.  
Why Takao was looking so starved was because, as they had later found out, Rei had 'punished' their friend rather harshly, forbidding the other to eat breakfast or anything for that matter.

Which, unfortunately, resulted to letting Rei take over the Head Chef's task because Takao was too hungry (and battered) to move a hand, much less a muscle. And of course, because the other three weren't stupid enough to take the whole group as their own responsibility when their fifth member was looking like he was plotting someone's murder.

Oh yeah, that's the reason-

_TING!_

Their Substitute Chef was done with his first task; preparing half of the ingredients that were needed for two dishes—carrots, spring onions, celeries and cucumber. He placed the knife on the table that was supposed to represent a kitchen counter; 7 rectangular, plastic tables were needed to create it—enough space for five people to do their own tasks and for two people to cook on the last two.

He wiped his hands on the white apron, which he was required to wear, before turning serious eyes to the other members of the group.

"Are you all done?"

"Yes, sir!" Max instantly took it upon himself to answer on behalf of his friends, since he was the older one among the three. He handed over large bowls containing red onions, white onions, red chilies, and garlic he was supposed to cut. "Here! Do you know how to make the dishes Takao had informed you about? Roasted Monkfish with Garlic sauce and—Tandoori-style Chicken, wasn't it? Yes, it was,"

He nodded approvingly to Max's work. "You're very precise with your chilies, I see,"

Max grinned, resting his palms on his hips proudly. "Why, thank you. I always thought they need to look very small and pretty,"

"No. I don't know the dishes," Rei finally added as an afterthought.

"Huh?"

He rolled up his sleeves in preparation, "I've decided to do the cooking my way. Is that okay with you—_Takao_?"

They both turned to look at their Head Chef Takao, who was sitting slumped over at the very end of their makeshift kitchen counter, (the seventh table to be exact), mumbling something or another.

Distinct "—'m starving—hurry up—need food—die—," were the only words they could make out of his mumbling.

"I guess you can start the fire now. We still have forty-nine minutes and sixteen seconds to go—technically way ahead of everyone!" Max chirped, stretching his smile in an effort to soften Rei's dark look. The end result was, at least, a bit more satisfying even if it's just a small tired smile.

"Please time me, Max,"

"You can count on me!" He pulled out his trusty stopwatch. "Your time begins--NOW!"

* * *

It didn't take long before a crowd surrounded their little 'kitchen'. It was hard not to come closer and stare at how the Substitute Chef (SC) handled what-looked-like fire-spouting wok. Really, the fire was set so high that the wok was engulfed within the fire. It gave the impression that the wok's content was spouting flames, which impressed the crowd, of course. But not as much as the fact that even though the content was spouting fire, no foul burning smell was circulating the air.

Appreciative murmurs and admiring sounds buzzed across the room—which did not go unnoticed by the other members of Rei's group.

Max and Kyouju were making awed sounds behind their throats. Daichi was-

"Show off," Daichi scoffed softly, sounding both awed and annoyed at the same time, as the SC elegantly dumped the fried ribs, chopped bell-peppers and large slices of garlic in a flat, porcelain and oval-looking plate.

_("7:31," Max announced grinningly)  
_  
"You think?"

Daichi instantly stood rigid when the quiet murmur reached his ears.

"Cool! You can even hear that far!" Max cheered quickly, trying to cover the poor Daichi. He turned his attention back to his stopwatch. "Twenty-five minutes and fifty seconds left, Rei,"

"I would gradually like to end this with three minutes and three seconds to spare," Rei responded.

Max grinned," Cocky, aren't you? Well, suit yourself,"

"Not really,"

He wasn't cocky. He just calculated the time he needed to prepare the last dish; estimating the time the chicken needed to be ready, adding the needed time the cooking of Hot Chili Sauce and Oyster Sauce should be thin enough to use and not to forget, the time the onions needed to be fried.

Sadly, he had miscalculated, finishing the dish with slight eight minutes and one second to spare.

He had forgotten that Kyouju had cooked the sauces beforehand (it had been his assigned task) and Daichi had already warmed the chicken to make it easier to cook for the next round, while Rei was preparing the ribs.

"That's okay," Max patted his back soothingly, "At least you finished before everyone else did. You should be proud!"

Rei slumped in the plastic chair Kyouju had pulled out for him. He took off his hat and pushed the hair that framed his face, back.  
He felt tired, exhausted but most of all, -_not_- angry anymore even if he tried—because he was too put out. He wouldn't be surprised if he looked battered and (probably even) abused due to one sleepless night; his eyes were probably red-rimmed and the bags under his eyes probably had a sickly-kind-of-green look.

"You should really consider becoming a Professional Chef," Kyouju suggested as he sat down in his own plastic chair.

"Tried. Did not work out," Rei admitted bitterly, lifting his hand to the right side of his face right near his eye, and started rubbing small circles across the area. His head was feeling a bit woozy.

"You tried and they didn't want you? Those idiots" Daichi muttered, before stuffing his mouth with paprika-flavored chips.

"Well—those who had lived their whole lives in the big city, would stamp me under the category 'ruffians' before I can even do my stuff. The category generalizes the fact that I originated from outside the city," He shrugged.

"I'm sorry," Max's voice sounded so far away.

"Don't be," Because he wasn't sorry for whatever had happened way back then. He shrugged again, "I'm not. Besides, I only came to study -_Management Economy Rights_- in Japan," he paused for a second, narrowing his eyes, and continued, "So don't even think I would make this a habit of mine. Helping you guys out with cooking, that is,"

He then shot all three a warning glare and smiled when neither of the three looked like they had any problems with his forewarning.

"—food—need food—'m hungry—,"

Perhaps he had been a bit too harsh on his flatmate. The little guy looked like he had just survived walking through a dessert; drained out, tired, slumped over and shriveled up too.

He sighed.

"Once we get home I'll make you a feast meal, okay? Come on, Takao! Get on your feet," Rei promised soothingly, ignoring the funny looks he was getting from Max and took off his apron.

"You're leaving already?" Kyouju started.

"There's no reason for me to stay and Takao is too starved to have fun with you guys," Rei pointed out, already standing up. He walked up to the still slumped over Takao, slid one of his flat mate's over the back of his neck and shifted part of the other's weight on his shoulder.

"You're really not interested who is going to be the winner?" Daichi wondered, almost dropping his bags of chips out of incredulity.

"Does it matter?"

"In a matter of fact, yes it does. The grand prize is just enough to pay our school's expenses and probably even a plane ride to England or something," Daichi flicked a thumb in the direction of one large advertising banner, hanging right above the entrance.

The text was—written backwards from his side of the view, though he did catch the prize money mentioned on the banner. And it had way too many zeroes to count.

"You forgot about the promotion part," Kyouju added, suddenly sounding all-knowingly.

Okay. It was starting to get confusing for him. Even if the text was backwards he knew very well there was no mention of promotion on the banner. He raised his eyebrows. "I thought Takao said his work was at stake,"

Max nodded, "It is. Yuri had threatened him if he doesn't win this contest he'll demote him, or worse, fire him,"

"Why? Is it true that his cooking would end everyone in hospital?" Rei instantly regretted getting persuaded by Takao's promises of cooking for him for the whole month.

He just had such simple desires, Rei thought dryly. Heh.

He could see it now—the message carved on his epitaph:

**_'Kon Rei, the one who was food-poisoned by his flat mate Kinomiya in the Year of the Sheep._**

Rest in Peace and never ever touch anyone's food except your own-'  
  
Max suddenly laughed aloud, "He got you with that one, didn't he? The lazy ass!"

He blinked. "—I don't understand," He shifted Takao's weight again.

"Takao is Yuri's most favored Chef," Kyouju enlightened. "Takao had once said that since he loves food that much, he has to cook very delicious for himself, enough to last his budget,"

No wonder why Takao had been looking for a flat mate to share his apartment's expenses. All his money is spent on food!

It's still too confusing, though. If Takao was such a great cook, why lie to him about his skills?  
One of these days he should gather them all round a fire or something and force them to tell everything about themselves—but that's just wistful thinking and very impolite. "If he's that great, why was his work at stake?"

Kyouju cleared his throat. "I'm very sure you know about Takao's, say, monstrous appetite,"

Rei nodded.

"Well, Yuri -_hates_- it when all the food is gone, before he's at the table," Kyouju continued. In other words—Takao's appetite were the cause of Yuri's threat. But there's something missing.

"You see where I'm going, Rei?"

"Perhaps—I'm only missing one thing, though,"

"And that is?" Max leaned closer.

"—can anyone please tell me who exactly is Yuri?"

Max blinked, automatically answering as if Rei should know already, "He's Takao's boss,"

"But I thought Ivanov is Takao's boss,"

"They're the same person. Ivanov is Yuri's family name. I thought you'd figured it out when you read the banner over there. The _Y-dot_ after the _Ivanov_ in the ending section," Daichi elaborated, mockingly pointing to said banner--the same one which they had referred to a few moments ago.

Daichi's words had struck a nerve. "Ch'," He was about to retort when a familiar stomach growl caught everyone's attention.

"—hungry—," Takao croaked softly, slumping over.

The weight on Rei's shoulders had suddenly tripled. Anger forgotten, making way for surprise and no sooner, he found himself dropping to his knees and palms.

_Ow. Did he break his kneecaps?  
_  
The other three had let out startled cries, rushed to him impulsively and were babbling worriedly over his head. He did not bother to register their words in his mind like he had tried last time.

"(huff huff) I didn't (huff huff huff) think he could be (swallow. Huff huff huff) this heavy (huff huff)," Rei admitted, out of breath. He felt stupid for being on the ground. "I'll never (huff huff) carry you again (huff huff),"

Rei sighed. "Will someone please get him off?"

Daichi and Max immediately pulled the relieved the heavy weight from Rei's back.

"I still can't believe he had resisted the smells this long," Kyouju held out his hand to pull Rei back on his feet.

"D'ya think he has a cold—a stuffed nose or something?" Daichi mused. Kyouju and Max looked at each other before simultaneously shaking their heads, scoffing, "—nah,"

Daichi added, "Whatever made him ignore the many delicious smells is quite an effective weapon,"

Takao was left slumping on the same table he had been propped against for the whole evening.

Rei was suddenly on the receiving end of Max's soulful, sky-blue eyes. It must have been those lights that made the eyes look like they were ready to water...  
"Please don't leave this early, Rei. I don't want to go yet. I'm the one driving remember? I don't want to leave without getting a taste of Yuri's famous secret dish,"

_Did Max's lips just quiver?  
_  
"Besides that, you haven't even met our host. It's impolite to leave without meeting him, you know?" Kyouju added hastily.

Rei tore his eyes away from the quivering blue ones and looked down at his slightly dusty pants. "No, thanks. I've to leave right now. Need to do some last minute shopping before we're out of stock tonight," He made a show of dusting off his pants and straightening them just so he wouldn't have to look at Max. Max's eyes reminded him of how Mao would look at him whenever she wanted to cry, but not crying immediately.

Ruefully, he smiled.

Whoever would have thought that someone as short and slender like Takao could weigh a ton or two? It's probably one of the weird quirks of city-life, perhaps.  
Back home, one of his friends, Gao, was like Takao—both having a ridiculous huge appetite. Though, at least Gao looked his size—large, bulky, beefy and so on.

He was startled, when someone hung a slender arm casually on his shoulder. He stiffened.

"So you are the famed Kon Rei," An unfamiliar voice said in amusement.

_It's an attack!  
_  
Alarmed and feeling threatened, he grabbed the arm and threw whoever was leaning on him over his shoulder. To his surprise, his supposed-to-be assaulter did not let out a shout of pain, not even one of surprise. Instead, the stranger bounced once on his palms and flipped back up on his feet.

A pair of amused ice blue eyes looked at him with contained mirth. He stared in disbelief. _How-?  
_  
"Who the h-UGH?" Before Rei could finish his question, he was fisted in a chokehold by a pair of strong, hard and calloused hands. He struggled to tear the hands from crushing his neck.

Choked.

Choked some more.

Need oxygen.

His vision started swimming_—was it time to die already?—_unconsciously he dug his nails into flesh.

* * *

In the background the results of Ivanov's mini-cooking contest were being announced while the audience clapped along to its fullest.

"—do you want a glass of milk?" the blue-eyed, red head, who had escaped Rei's throw, offered politely.

He narrowed his eyes at him in response.

"-lots of calcium to make you recover!" the other tried again, holding a glass of milk to Rei.

He turned his head away, ignoring the glass no matter how tempting.

Rei had been lucky to escape the chokehold a few minutes ago (with the help of the redhead for some reason). Though not thoroughly unscathed, as there were reddish hand marks adorning his pale neck.

Thinking back again, Rei unconsciously rubbed the abused area and shot glares at the -_only_- gray-haired guy with strangely lavender eyes, from across his seat.

The other returned his glares with the same amount of fury, scooting his chair almost over protectively closer to the redhead.

After the misunderstanding (as Max had put it) Rei found himself sitting in a circle with a bunch of unknown people—including Takao's three friends. He scooted a bit further away from

Max cleared his throat, nervously chuckling, "So—uhm—Rei, this is our host—Ivanov Yuri and his -_bodyguard_-" Max ignored the glare he was receiving from Yuri, "-Boris,"

Ivanov raised up a hand in greeting instead of doing the customary bowing. "Sorry about just then. I didn't know you would throw people around,"

Rei inclined his head politely in return to the raised-up hand and dropped his glare. "I don't like people sneaking up to me,"

"I admit you took me by surprise there. By the way, that's one nice hurl!"

Rei snorted. Ivanov exchanged some secretive glances with Boris.

"I'm flattered you're thinking it was indeed powerful," Rei took this as his cue, standing up to leave. "Excuse me for being hasty. I need to go right now. Max,"

The blond nodded solemnly and stood up, only to be pushed back in his seat by a no-longer-starving Takao.

His flat mate crossed his arms, pointedly giving Rei an uncharacteristic flat look. He looked right back at him, only out of confusion, "What?"

"—we're second place," Takao finally spoke up.

"So? I never said anything about guaranteeing the grand prize for your group," He pointed out flippantly. Unfortunately, that wasn't the right excuse his flat mate wanted to hear and he started throwing a tantrum.

"How could you? How could you? How could you? **_REI!_** How could you do this to me, Rei? I held high expectations of your participation. To think that I even compliment you on daily basis. Coming from me, you should proud to have my acknowledgements. How could you do this to me? Why second place? I kept my end of the bargain; not eating for the whole day, and this is what you repay me? Second place? Did you do something wrong with the ribs? Was the chicken too bony?-"

Rei rolled his eyes. "I like you better when you were hungry. At least then you would be meek and quiet. To think I had wanted to reward you for your good sportsmanship tonight with a feast meal-,"

A hungered look crossed Takao's face. His teeth was watering... "—a feast meal all for me?"  
He quickly shook his head. With an accusing finger, Takao pointed between Rei's eyes. "-no—No! No! You lost! You made me lose my job! You deliberately didn't cook well, didn't you? You deliberately did it to punish me for lying, didn't you?"

Looking cross-eyed at the offending finger, he pushed it away. "Don't point your finger at me, Takao and don't be so childish. Why would I bother punishing with such a petty method? For all I know I could just punish you by locking you up in your room or something. Besides that, don't you know Olivier's records?"

_"Oli-who?"  
_  
"Olivier, the one who got the first prize—the one with the forest-green hair," He explained, gesturing to a short person with forest-green hair tucked under the usual white hat, in the crowd.

Max squinted his eyes to see the person called Olivier. "How did you know? You weren't even listening to the results,"

"I didn't have to. I just knew the moment I saw him, he would be a difficult challenger to beat," He admitted.

"Yeah. Yeah. So who exactly is this Olivier-guy?" Takao cut in, hopping impatiently.

Before Rei could explain, Ivanov beat him to it, "He is France's most prestigious Junior Chef aiming for higher degree. Won many National and International cooking contests in the passing years,"

Ivanov sent a long smirk in Takao's direction. "—to be honest. He is far better than you with his culinary skills,"

Takao bristled. "If he is such a great Chef, why exactly is he participating your mini-contest, huh?"

"—that's because he is good friends with a certain friend's archenemy," was the flippant answer coming from the redhead.

There was a moment of confusion in the group—which was rudely interrupted by Takao's outcry.

"—you mean, because of _HIM_!"

"Yes, _HIM_ and not to forget -**him**-," Ivanov nodded solemnly. The emphasis on _'him' _had shaken Takao for some reason that his face looked paler than normal.

"We're in hell," He groaned out at last, slapping his forehead.

Rei didn't dwell too much on whatever 'hell' Takao was thinking of. He didn't even understand what exactly had been said.

"Not necessary. It's rather fun to see them so stirred up because of each other's presences. Don't you think so too, Boris?" Ivanov trailed a finger on Boris' hand and send the other a strange—not exactly sugary-sweet-loving look but something more like a -_feral_- look.

Boris looked back coolly. His lips then curled up into a malicious smirk. "At least he doesn't have to expect much from that Johnny other than loathing,"  
He trapped Ivanov's teasing fingers by grabbing the other's hand in his.

Rei watched on in fascination.

"Lots of blood will be spilled," Boris added cryptically, his smirk widening.  
"Your hands should stay where they belong," He added, putting the captured hand in Ivanov's lap.

Ivanov pouted.

Rei stared. What exactly is -_this_-? Do friends act like that?

"Whom exactly are you two talking about?" Max wondered innocently, before nudging Takao in the ribs. "Tell me. Who are the -**him**- and the other -_him_- refer to? There are two people right? Right? Tell me,"

"Who else do you think? Kai, of course!" Takao answered.

Rei frowned. What exactly were they going on about?

"Oh, -**him**- and -_that guy_-," Max joined the cynical conversation.

"Now, now, Mizuhara—not in that kind of context. You make it sound as if they're dating," Ivanov admonished, though, amusement was written all over his face.

Sheepishly, Max scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry, sorry. I mean no disrespect to your—uhm—relationship,"

"You better not. Though, I don't think it's such a bad idea—," Ivanov and Boris shared a look, before mirroring each other's smirks.

"Ooh, wouldn't it be much like a volcano eruption if they ever were--you know?" Ivanov raised his right index finger. "All they need is probably a push in the right direction—,"

Takao stopped groaning about something or another, before he finally caught on to Ivanov's words and shouted, **_"HELL NO! DON'T EVEN GO THERE, YURIIIIII!"_**

"Why not? You like him like that too?"

Takao sputtered.

Rei felt like he was pushed in the middle of gossiping women; he had lost track of their conversation as soon as Max started talking about a certain -_him_- and another **HIM** with Takao and the others.

They were probably deliberately saying '_him_' several times when referring to two people because he was a stranger in their midst.

He yawned. His eyes automatically watered and his shoulders slumped. Which reminded him of the fact that he still needed do some late night shopping. Seeing as everyone was too busy discussing a certain Kai and a certain Johnny, he slipped away from the circle, hopefully unnoticed.

* * *

Rei stared at the huge driveway in front of him and then at the world beyond the main gate. To his horror, he could only see a few small buildings and spots. The city outside the Ivanov's villa seemed so small from his side.

_-oh. _

Oh yeah. Almost forgotten that the Ivanov's villa was built on a hill.

How the heck was he was he supposed to know where that convenience store, at which Max worked, could be found from this side of the city?

He regretted not having explored the city to its entirety when he had moved into Takao's apartment. Sighing, he descended the marble stairs that were built in front of the front door.

If this were what Takao called -_quality time_- with him, he would rather like to stay home, and sleep the whole day and night off. Though, he wouldn't say his Saturday night with Takao (and his friends) was boring or fun.  
It was just... different and too energy consuming on his part. Perhaps he had exaggerated a bit with preparing his dishes.

_'Show off'_, Daichi had said. He probably had been showing off all this time. What would his friends back in the village say about this?

"How dare you leave my house without a proper goodbye!"

Rei froze in mid-step and slowly turned around, feeling guilty. "I-,"

He was immediately cut off when someone else's spoke up in a clear fine, definitely male voice. "You were too busy with -_Boris_-. I thought it wouldn't matter if I-,"

"-if you just leave?" Ivanov interrupted him, his voice sounding steely-cold. Different from the playful and amused tone.

"What does it matter if I say a proper goodbye or not?"

"It does matter!"

Rei realized that Ivanov was actually talking to the guy, who was standing a few stairs ahead of his. He released the sharp intake of breath he wasn't aware of holding and placed his hovering foot back on the solid stairs. To think that Ivanov would be furious at him just because he didn't say a proper goodbye sounded quite ridiculous. After all, he didn't know Ivanov personally and vice versa.

He was about to step down when Ivanov's steely voice spoke up again, though, this time directed to -_him_-. "You're not going anywhere, Kon,"

Rei felt something frigid run down his spine. He turned around to face the redhead, guiltily dropping his head like he would always do whenever he did something very wrong in front of the Elders.

"I apologize for being hasty with my retreat, Ivanov-san. But I need to run some errands before we're starved to death tonight and-,"

"You keep saying that! Do you find my party so boring that you make up an excuse just to leave, Kon?" Ivanov demanded.

_Why do people keep interrupting him?_

Ivanov's words made him feel guiltier for some reason. "No! It's not like that. Honest! I really need to go do some grocery shopping and-" He tried to sound convincing, but instead it seemed like he didn't sound as confident as he'd once prided himself for, because Kon Rei had never ever let out a mewl of fright. _Never_. Until now.

"—I like you even more, Kon," Ivanov suddenly let out a strange laugh.

"Huh?" Something wicked was coming his way.

"Guess you've found yourself a ride," Rei blinked at Ivanov, who was smirking for some reason. He didn't like the playful glint in Ivanov's eyes one bit.

"-what? How?"

"KAI, please escort my friend, Kon, here to Mizuhara's store!"

_What?  
_  
A dangerous low voice responded, "What?" And then, a more deeper but dangerous growl, "Tell me one good reason why I should obey you, Yuri?"

Ivanov ignored his question. He fixed his attention on Rei instead.

Shocked, Rei stared incredulously at the redhead, blinking his eyes. _What did he just say?  
_  
"Don't look at me like that. Think about the many miles you have to walk before you reach to Mizuhara's store—yes, the one you like to buy your groceries—having my friend to give you a lift would save a lot of energy and sweat, don't you think?" Ivanov nodded his head in mock-sympathy and patted Rei's shoulders.

"But I don't mind walking long distances," Back in the village, it was normal to walk long distances before they reach the first modern city—sometimes it took a whole day before they reached a certain city and sometimes just a few hours.

"Trust me on this one, kitty-" Rei bristled at the 'kitty' comment. What's with the too friendly nearness? He took a few steps back. "You really -_need_- this ride," Ivanov whispered. "Japan's nights are unlike those of yours. Especially when you live here in this big metropolis. There are lots of dangers lurking in this area so it's best you get a ride from someone like Kai—he's my most trusted friend, so you don't have to worry for any wayward dangers. He'll protect you,"

Rei did not appreciate to be equaled to weak and defenseless. He was one of the best fighters back in his village, thank you very much! He was about to retort and defend his Neko-jin pride—only to be interrupted _yet again_.

_Dammit! Next time when someone interrupts him again, he'll put his foot into that person's mouth._

Ivanov was suddenly wrenched from Rei's side and dragged further away out of ear shot by some tall guy, but not tall enough to beat Ivanov in height.  
'Kai' was the guy's name. The same 'Kai' the others had been discussing about with this 'Johnny' figure?

Even with his utterly sensitive hearing, Rei did not listen in. He truthfully did not. Those two 'friends' would, for all he knew, talk random stuff again and make his poor over-loaded brain more confused than it already was. He distinctly heard a "Fine," then a "Thank you," and two pairs of footsteps approaching him.

"Kai, meet Kon Rei, Takao's flat mate; Rei, meet Hiwatari Kai, my best friend. Drive safe, Kai. I don't want Rei to get high blood pressure. And Rei, try being nice to my friend at least, he's such a lonely soul. Anyways, have a nice evening you guys! Bye-bye,"

And off Ivanov went, leaving Rei blinking and confused in Hiwatari's care.

**– END 2. Beginning B: Rei –  
**  
**(To be continued in: 3. Beginning C: Rei)  
**  
**Notes:  
**  
- _Takao's suggested dishes_ - are taken from "**The Low Fat Cook book**" written by **Sue Kreitzman**. I own the book ** :P :inserts weird laughter:**  
- _Rei's dishes_ - are Chinese dishes my parents usually order whenever we go to restaurants: Fried ribs (though I seem to be the only one who likes Garlic Fried Ribs while they like Sweet 'n Sour Fried Ribs) and Pa-Wong-Kai (don't know what it's called in English—'something-something-chicken' **:sweatdrops:**)  
- **MER **– that's what I'll be studying for.  
- _Yuri flipping back to his feet_ – I just had to put it there. I just had to put it there. I just had to put it there (repeated who-knows-how-many times). Yuri is just so cool! **:gets beaten up for the OoC-ness:**  
- _Car ride_ - My cousin and his girlfriend (who's one of my childhood friends' older sister) met each other like that—a supposedly normal car ride. Though their circumstances differ from this story, because, really, they met in a Chinese sports organization under quite friendly terms. I guess how their relationship had started just fascinated me and inspired me to write a Kai/Rei. **:gets beaten up for mentioning hetero before K/R:**

**TheNekoTalks:  
**I tend to over-work when working on my new chapters: scenes are crossed out, re-written, edited and re-edited to my liking. Which always results to me updating not so frequently as I used to 3 years ago. Since I planned on writing long chapters for this story, it takes quite a while before I'm satisfied with the chapter—paragraphs—writing style—and sentence structures. (Which probably explains why the chapter look so haphazard and schizophrenic **:cries:**)

I'm very grateful for those who had read and-or reviewed the previous chapter: **_PandaPjays_**, **_Echo in the Dark_**, **_SilverYoukai2496_** and **_Demenior_**. My deepest apologies for not replying to each and every one of you individually (I truly love to reply reviews), because of efefdotnet's new rule. I'll probably reply them on my website (if I ever update my fanfiction section, that is **:sweatdrops:**).

**Thank you for taking your time to read! I apologize for the long notes and for the rushing of this chapter.**

.:Nekocin:.


	3. Beginning C: Rei

**Aoi Kodoku**; Blue Solitude  
**Author:** Nekocin  
**Warnings:** some angst, out of character, weird humor, this is not a school fic (!), a bit repetitive, random culinary stuff.  
**Disclaimer:** see previous chapter  
**Author's notes:** Need a new summary. The current one doesn't seem to cover the whole story.  
I was supposed to update this yesterday, but due to my sleepless night I forgot to save it in my floppy. I apologize for my lateness.

* * *

_It had taken one lift in Hiwatari's nice car to make Rei realize he loved his current life, thank you very much.  
Hiwatari had graciously (between quotation marks) pushed him into his car, before racing off down the hill as if it were normal to drive in turbo speed. It didn't take long for Rei to notice the arrogant smirk playing on the other's smirk._

Fortunately, he didn't let out screams of terror throughout the "funky" ride or else that little smirk would have stretched further, mocking his neko-jin pride.

They arrived at Mizuhara's convenient store within roughly calculated five minutes and fifty seconds.  
Hiwatari slammed the brake hard, resulting to Rei almost hitting himself face-first on the dashboard.

"Out!" Hiwatari commanded.

"Geez. Couldn't you drive a bit slowly? We could've gotten killed in traffic!" Rei muttered, unfastening his seatbelt and opened the door by his side. He received no verbal response. Instead, he got himself in a painful chokehold for the second time that night.

"How much did Ivanov pay you to do this dirty work?" Hiwatari demanded, voice low.

—**dirty—work—?**

His eyes of vermouth pinned Rei to his seat like missed knives in the concrete walls. He couldn't quite grasp the meaning behind those accusing words. But he knew something sinister must be at work or else why would Hiwatari want to kill an oblivious village boy in his own car?

Rei regretted being so easily persuaded for such a trivial thing like getting a free car ride down town. He might as well hope for the best that Rai, one of his most respected friends back at the village, would give his body a proper burial... he missed the village.

It took quite a moment for him to realize that he was hacking for breath and desperately clawing Hiwatari's grip for release.

His ears felt like they were going to pop out in a few more seconds. He was seeing white blotches already.

Was he going to die there?

Even for someone like him to be always imagining how he would die, he actually didn't like to get killed just yet. People tend to imagine impossible things of their nearest future, feverishly hoping that everything would turn out to be like they had wanted to be. Instead, when the chance was given to fulfill these dreams, people back out, having second thoughts and at last, decided that their current life was more welcoming than their dreams.

Rei realized why Mao's grandmother liked to call him a hypocritical brat.

In another desperate attempt to escape, he struggled, clawed across Hiwatari's cheeks and was immediately released. A distinct hiss of pain and cursing reached his almost deafened ears. But he didn't care about that.

Grabbing his chance firmly with his nails and teeth if it must, Rei fumbled to open the door and threw himself out of the front seat, greedily breathing in the cold night air as much as he could. The insides of his head was whirling due to a higher and quicker oxygen pressure entering his brain cells through his lips and nostrils.

He better gets out of there before that guy comes to take his vengeance or something.

Rei scrambled back on his feet, albeit ungracefully, breaking into a run for Mizuhara's convenience store, silently hoping never to see that weirdo, Hiwatari Kai, again.

—**How much did Ivanov pay you to do this dirty work?—**In his mind, he repeated these words sarcastically before promptly dismissing the quote as unimportant.

Heh. Now, how exactly would he go home in case Hiwatari decided to wait outside? 

* * *

**3. Beginning C: Rei**

* * *

The week in which the Institute would welcome the new school year opened with Rei struggling to wear the school's standard spring uniform at the same time. Pants up. Shirt on. Jacket on top. And he didn't really know how to bind his tie. He'd spent a good fifteen minutes fighting with the many knots he'd tried before giving up and opting to put the tie in his navy blue jacket's pocket, instead.

The pants felt a bit strange against his sensitive skin. The fabric _-scraped-_ and _-pricked-_ his skin whenever he walked. The white shirt felt thin and open. There's a possibility that the shirt had only 5 percent woven nylon and the rest cotton. All in one layer. And sadly, there's no high collar.

The clothes were completely different from the clothes he usually wore. He was used to soft cotton caressing his skin whenever he moved, elaborately embroidered satin gracing his neck and sleeves and the "homely" smell that lingered on the outer vests where the linen buttons should be fastened.

He looked at the little white tiger alarm clock Kiki had given him as a "Be Safe" gift when he was about to leave the country. Kiki might have been the brattiest and the most uncontrollable one within his circle of friends; he was perhaps the only one _-sincere-_ enough to send Rei such a gift for his own safety.

**5:15 AM**

He wasn't late for school. _Yet.  
_  
Taking one last look at his room to see if anything was out of place, he closed the bedroom door and walked swiftly to the kitchen to make breakfast.

Takao wasn't awake yet for he didn't have school. He'd heard from Max that Takao had taken a 'shortcut' just to become what he is now. His flat mate didn't have to go through college to be Ivanov's best cook.

_Lucky guy._ Takao had already known what he wanted to do with his life before he went to high school. Rei, however, didn't. He'd just randomly chosen (all right, maybe not really that randomly since MER was a suggestion he had taken account for) a study where a master's degree was required.

It took a while for him to realize they were running low in stock _-again-_. Sigh.

**X - X**

"I'm seriously going to put you on a diet, Takao, " Rei remarked to his drooping flat mate when the other trudged into the kitchen with his hair sticking to all ends.

Takao mumbled something in return and stared at his plate. "What's this?"

"Toast with butter on top," Rei answered bluntly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"This is an outrage!" Takao was immediately wide-awake. "It's not enough to be my breakfast, _Rei!"_

Too bad. There was nothing else in the stock-cabinet. Not even in the refrigerator.

Rei looked over at the clock, which adorned the hall. It was almost time for school. "I don't care. Hopefully, I can see you alive, tonight,"

**_"REI!"_** Takao whined, horrified.

He waved once and walked out of the kitchen. "I'm off. Bye,"

"How can you leave your hungry, battered roommate behind? **_REI!_**"

_-Patan!- (door closes)_

He closed the front door behind him, carefully straightening the sides of his cotton shoes to give his feet some breathing room in the narrow spaces. Without a backward glance, he jogged past the elevator door on which a big notice board hung with the message _"Due to technical difficulties, this elevator is closed for the time being. Please use the stairs instead"_ to the stairs.  
Rei took two steps at the same time, jumped when he neared the last one and sprinted down the sidewalk.

He didn't know what to expect from the Institute he would be attending.  
Huge? Small? Ancient? Modern? Ugly? Anything was possible.

* * *

The building was bigger than any school he had visited so far back in China. And perhaps, prettier even. The outside walls were made of green glass that mirrored the outside world. Sakura trees were planted on each side of the lane that directed anyone towards the building or to the back of the building. They were fully bloomed. Pretty white, rose and deep pink petals adorned the branches.  
He supposed the back of the building was were all the P.E. activities were held.

Rei suddenly realize a lot of people were staring curiously at him. He lowered his head self-consciously and quickly entered the building not before reading the school's name.

**Bakuten Sunshine Institute founded by Dr. Daitenji**

The first thing he had to do was to find out in which class he was placed.

He searched for his name (either in kanji or in katakana) on the school's notice board where long lists of names under each class form were written.

**_Class 1 - C_**

20. Kon Rei  
  
Something else was written besides his name. It was a quick message for him about meeting up with the head master to get a whole overview of the school rules and his schedule.

* * *

It's his first day to school and he already got himself injured during P.E.

Just great.

Normally, he had no problems with physical education for he was a naturally athletic (well, most of the time, when he wasn't lazy). But if all the boys in class corner one classmate during a friendly game of "Dodge ball", the result is always the same. The victim has already been decided.

It seemed like everyone was out to get him when they had noticed he was pretty quick at dodging balls with his--what they had dubbed as "show off"—maneuvers. Or it was perhaps because he looked strange and came from China. Whichever. He got injured some time during the game and was sent off to see the school's doctor by the teacher. All by himself. Even the teacher teamed up with his classmates.

At least the girls were rather... motherly and overly nice. He suspected that his looks made their hearts "_flutter_" and "_dance_". He never did understand such terms, even when Mao had tried explaining the "_first stage of love where girls are rather obvious about their crushes_" thing.  
Not that it's a bad thing for not really knowing what exactly Mao was talking about. He might be naive but he wasn't stupid. Those dreamy looks on him gave everything away.

Finding the doctor's office was quite one large task he hadn't suspected of doing.  
He took almost a half hour trying to find the doctor's office, limping slightly with one hand holding his bruised arm in place.  
The office wasn't on the first or second floor as he'd suspected. It was on the third, near the second years' classes.  
Who was the idiot who'd built the rooms haphazardly like this? Shouldn't the doctor's office be on the first floor for easy access when students get themselves injured during P.E.-classes?

Rei wouldn't be surprised if the school doctor admits he needed immediate treatment. He could see his injured arm swelling up. And that bruise looked very nasty. Who gave him that bruise again?

He knocked first before sliding the door open, saying the customary "Good morning, Doctor,"

The doctor turned around from looking through the medicine cabinet.

Rei realized the nightmare he had the other night wasn't over yet.

_Vermouth-colored eyes_™_. Weird cheek markings™. The smirk™.  
_  
"Good morning," Hiwatari Kai responded, coolly taking in his appearance behind a pair of glasses. He looked even scarier in that white doctor's uniform. This must be a dream.

"Do you want something?"

Rei was really getting scared. This was the same Hiwatari who tried to kill him? "Uhm—"

Dr. Hiwatari's eyes trailed down to look at the arm he was holding, probably choosing to see what was wrong instead of hearing what went wrong.

"Sit," he ordered, gesturing to the examination bed before squatting down to open the cabinet underneath the medicine one and rummaging through its content.

Hiwatari didn't look like he recognized him. The moment he had entered the room there were no long smirks; no amused eyes and note even a pleased look for the fact that Rei had, willingly and unknowingly, wandered back to him—the unofficial _Death Bringer_ of an orphaned neko-jin.

He obediently pushed himself up to sit on the high bed.

Finally, Dr. Hiwatari closed the cabinet, having found the kit he had been looking for and turned to his patient. "Show me,"

Rei dutifully pointed to the swollen parts.

Dr. Hiwatari's cool fingers touched the purple bruise on his arm, inspecting the damage with a few light probing—and then repeated the same actions on Rei's leg. There was no thoughtful crease on Hiwatari-sensei's forehead.

"How did you get these?"

Rei felt his left ear flatten against his hair when Hiwatari-sensei's hot breath graced his delicate skin. His hand immediately flew up to rub his ear.

Did he do that on purpose? It didn't seem like the doctor had noticed how tense he was sitting.

"Dodge ball," He inwardly congratulated himself for sounding rather cool than panicked. Suspiciously, he watched the doctor with guarded eyes.

Hiwatari-sensei opened the first-aid kit and picked out a bottle with the inscription of "_Alcohol_" on it. What's that for?

"Unfortunately, I don't have ice here. Let's settle with alcohol then," Hiwatari suggested. He twisted open the cap, applied the liquid on a cotton pad and stepped closer to his patient.  
He silently asked for Rei's swollen arm. Without warning, he started rubbing the swelling with the drenched cotton. Harshly.

Rei cried out like he had never done before. Tears started gathering in the corners of his eyes, as the pain seemed to deepen with each rub. His arm instinctively wanted to pull back from the treatment, but with Hiwatari's death grip round his wrist Rei was doomed to bear it until the very end.

_Sadistic jerk!  
_  
For a moment he felt soft breezes caress the abused part of his arm.

_What the-?  
_  
The breezes felt cold against his skin and--welcome too. Teary-eyed, he looked over at his arm.

"You're not that tough, after all, Kon," He could just -_feel_- the smirk in Hiwatari's biting words.

Rei suddenly felt ashamed of himself. He felt ashamed of himself for letting his tears flow in front of his Death. A strange swirl of self-disappointment was raging inside his stomach when he turned his eyes away from his throbbing arm.

"I can never forget the face of the culprit who gave me these scars," Hiwatari said dangerously low and brought Rei's numbed fingers to touch said scars on his cheek.

Rei felt mortified.

Dr. Hiwatari dropped his arm and went to prepare for the next round of treating the second bruise.

This time, Rei had scraped the little courage he had together and waited anxiously for the doctor to complete his torture. He did not scream or resist—he had whimpered, grit his teeth and scratched the bed with his sharp nails.

He disliked the Institute on his first day already.

"Your throat must be sore from all that screaming. Drink this,"

A cup of water was offered to him, after the rough treatment. He realized it did hurt. The water had cooled down the burning within his throat a bit. Admittedly, its cooling effect didn't entirely ease the pain. Rei wasn't expecting it to.

Wiping away some straying tears, Rei slowly slid down the examination bed and placed the empty plastic cup in Hiwatari's awaiting hands. He'll never try to step into this mad doctor's office in the near future again.

"You can save your pride by staying here with me—," Hiwatari-sensei offered.

Already horrified at the prospect of being in the same room with his tormentor, Rei shook his head hastily to shoot down the offer and mumbled a quick but polite, "No, thank you. I'll be fine. Thank you for treating me,"

He did not miss the light smirk on the doctor's face when he gave the other a fleeting glance, before rushing out of the room. Whether it was mocking him or not, he wasn't sure and didn't want to find out.

That was the most horrible experience he had ever taken part of. He would write to Mao's grandmother and ask her for some pointers about healing herbs. (Herbs that preferably could treat cuts, bruises, headaches, flu and other sorts of ailments and physical wounds.)

When he got back to P.E.-class he was completely swarmed by his extremely worried female classmates. The way they fawned over him and his haggard state was more than welcome—even though, most of them had admitted having crushes on the handsome Hiwatari Kai-sensei—_also known as The Sadist in his head_—and decided to worship him, instead.

* * *

"I'm home!" he called out tiredly and leaned against the wall in order to take off his shoes without putting much pressure on his leg. He hate to admit it, but the rough treatment had helped a bit. The pain had subsided most of the time—when he wasn't pressuring either his arm or leg, that is. It was as if he had never been bruised up during a game before.

"Welcome back!" Takao had appeared out of nowhere into his face. Grinning.

Rei let out a startled cry, instinctively jumping up—and accidentally hit his bruised arm against the door handle. _Fuck—  
_He hissed aloud, immediately grabbing his injured arm and tried to will the sudden tears from the corners of his eyes away. A long but reserved "o_w_" followed.

His flat mate's eyes widened.  
"Sorry. I didn't mean to surprise you or anything. Are you okay?" Takao stopped grinning and worriedly stepped closer to Rei as if he was about to faint.

"Y-yes. I'm fine. I'm all right," Rei managed to bit out. He held his arm to his side to prevent any more stumbling against random objects as he made his way down the narrow hall with Takao following him.

"Want me to carry you to the sofa? You don't look so good,"

"No, thank you for asking. I'm okay. Don't worry,"

"But-,"

"There's nothing wrong with me. I just hit my arm. Big deal!"

"—okay, if you say so—," It seemed as if he would drop the topic, but Rei knew Takao's sharp eyes was observing his every move from behind. He cautiously let go of his injured arm and slowly stretched the muscles to feel if there was anything broken.

"Have you prepared lunch already?" Rei asked over his shoulder as he unbuttoned his jacket.

"No. I was waiting for you to do it," Takao responded cheerfully.

No hint of feeling guilty or regret. Sure. Just let nice Rei do all the work because he simply -_loves_- to play housewife for him. Rei rolled his eyes and loosened the tie round his neck. (He'd gone through all his classes with a tie, after all. One of the girls had offered her service of tying it properly for him. Thanks to her, he didn't have to make a fool out of himself for not wearing the school's dressing code)

"What will we have tonight?"

**X - X **

After changing his uniform to his house clothes, Rei went to the kitchen to prepare dinner at 16:35. His stomach was growling already—or maybe it was Takao's? Whichever.

"So, how was your day? Was it exciting? Normal? Did you get yourself a girlfriend?"

_Chop!  
_  
"Awful and humiliating,"

_Good.  
_  
"Why? Did you annoy some teachers on your first day already?"

_Chop!  
_  
"Not really. Well, maybe the Physical Education teacher—and the guys in my class,"

_Right side.  
_  
"Only that?"

_Chop!  
_  
"Uh-huh. They dislike me,"

_Above.  
_  
"What did you do? How can anyone dislike you? You're Rei!"

"I'm not sure because I look weird? Because I have all the girls in class worshipping the ground I walk? Because I'm a good dodge-,"

_Cho-_ **"ARGH!"  
**  
Annoyed, Rei slapped the cookbook closed and threw it against the opposite wall behind him. His eyes twitched when he turned to look down at the unevenly chopped pieces of spring onions.

Where did he do wrong? Such an easy task like chopping onions should be completed within a few seconds. Instead, he had taken one minute and forty seconds to cut the onions into pieces of four centimeters long. Sloppy work was intolerable, especially when he was the one behind it.

Dicing the onions into itty-bitty pieces is a piece of cake, naturally. So why did he fail to dice them correctly? Was it because of his injury?

"That's it! You're going down and I don't care how long you're supposed to be!" Rei snarled, tightened his grip on the knife handle and attacked his failed task, mincing the pieces to his liking.

"Uh—Rei—want me to help? I know a great deal about European dishes," Takao offered suddenly

Rei shot him a glare. "Why didn't you say so in the first place? Now, how can I do this required length of 4 cm? Using a ruler?"

Takao smiled disarmingly. "Why not?" And he reached out his hand, silently asking for the knife.

Minutes later, Takao wiped his hands on the end of the white apron he was wearing, and suddenly started laughing out loud. "I can't believe my boss did that to you, the other night. What did you do to get his attention?"

Rei stopped staring in wonder at the sizzling mix of spring onions, red onions and white beans in tomato sauce. So that's how it's done.

"What do you mean?"

"Ack! Nothing important. Just thought of something funny," Takao grinned, waving his right hand in a poor attempt to erase whatever had been said. He then returned his attention to the wok, when he was sure his flat mate wasn't going to prod any further.

Rei did the same, promptly dismissing his confusion. After all, it was hard to understand how Takao's humor worked. His eyes followed Takao's every move when stirring the beans to one side and then to the opposite.

"It looks so easy,"

"Of course it is! They're canned beans with tomato sauce. We don't have to make the sauce. We don't have to wash these beans. We don't need many ingredients for this dish. All we have to do is cook! Neat, huh?" Takao reasoned in his rather unusual matter-of-fact voice.

"It doesn't look like an European dish to me," Rei's skeptic remark made the temporary cook face-fault.

It really wasn't an European dish. White beans were just swimming within the mild red sauce with onions sticking and floating here and there. Nothing spectacular about the disk's looks. Nothing unique about its taste. Argh! There was not even a bit of eye-candy in the mix.

Rei felt wounded. How could such a -_simple_- thing defeat him when he was trying to cut those infuriating onions? His right eye twitched in annoyance. And the picture in the cookbook doesn't look like that! Was that book lying? Or worse, was he losing his magical touch?

"Oi, Rei, could you get the door. You can mope later,"

Door? Oh. _  
_  
Without a word, Rei walked out of the kitchen.

Once his flat mate was out, Takao let out the breath he wasn't aware of holding, and slid down to the tiled floor, chuckling to himself for no apparent reason.

"I think I'm going crazy," he told himself. With the back of his hand, he wiped his forehead and sighed. He had almost got himself into trouble with that slip of the tongue. Yuri would kill him for being such a blabbermouth. Taking a deep breath, he stood up just as Rei walked in with something in his hand.

"Who's at the door?"

"The neighbour's kid,"

"Which one? Did he demand to be let in?"

"What for?"

"To steal my games, what else? So, did he?"

"No—he was just passing this card to me"

"Card?"

Rei showed the white card in his hand. "This one,"

"Oh,"

"He said it's specifically for me because I have long hair and look girly,"

Takao muffled his snickers behind a hand.

Rei shot him an annoyed glare. "It's not funny, Kinomiya! I bonked the kid's head for insulting me. Want me to repeat it on your head too? I assure you, you won't see it coming until tomorrow,"

"Sorry," Takao opened the card and stared at the message. He stared some more before looking up at his flat mate, embarrassed smile playing on his lips.

"It's—it's—it's an invitation!"

An invitation of someone who was interested. And he knew...

Rei nodded. "From someone going by the name Suzaku. Do you know that person?"

"No," Takao wanted to hit himself. This must be some sick dream. He had to be dreaming.

"I can't believe it's already getting started," he murmured.

"What is getting started?"

"I mean—will you go?"

Rei shrugged. "Probably not. I don't want to miss my 7:30 culinary show. I read in the newspaper they'll have it about giant shrimps, exotic roasted giant shells and Japanese-style grilled beef,"

Takao face-faulted. "You're going to ignore this invitation for a stupid show?"

"Hey! I love that show," he said defensively. "And I don't know anyone going by the name Suzaku. So why should I?"

Takao decided to let the whole thing slide—_for a while_.

* * *

It was 7:45. Rei was already excitedly pointing at the TV screen, making impressed noises and writing down notes (for future references) in a small worn notebook he'd found in his luggage.

Rei had become a whole different person. He'd completely forgotten about his rotten day. And about the evil doctor Hiwatari.

The screen showed how three VIPs (they were probably members of a boys band) and the show's host looked over the lunch table on which large delicacies was served: a large silver bowl filled with the biggest shrimps covered with fried flour and ketchup any outsider had seen (really, they were as big as an S-cup beverage. Probably even bigger); another larger bowl filled with _xxx-roasted_ shells and at last, the grilled steak—thing.

The camera zoomed in to show how the shrimp looked like.

"I've never seen sea shrimps with those sizes before. Are they for real?"

The host and one of the guys were rapidly exchanging comments about the shrimp and its background.

"Rei-," Takao tried.

"It's a famous delicacy in Kyoto, huh?"

Rei scribbled something hastily in the notebook.

"Rei-,"

Next, the camera showed the bowl of roasted shells up close.

"Look at those shells! Should we eat their pearls too?"

Sadly there were no pretty pearl in one of the shells one of the guys was testing out. It seemed the pearl wasn't edible enough to be roasted along with the shells. Lots of laughing between the host and his guests.

Rei didn't really understand their jokes.

"Rei-,"

It was then the beef--the steak--whatever it's called--turn. The host said something crude and his guests laughed... for some reason. Must be an inside joke.

"Hey! That beef is so disgustingly huge, don't you think so too?"

"Rei-,"

Takao got impatient and threw a pillow at the back of his flat mate's head. The pillow hit its target with the result of Rei's pen being forced to write into a different direction. "**_REI!_** Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

"A-yah! I meant -_shell fish_- not -_statement shell_-," ...he had miswritten a word or two, not even showing signs of having heard Takao's shout.

So this was the side of his unusually quiet flat mate when he was not moping around and about the crowded city life.

Takao sighed again. He felt exhausted and completely out of it. "—I knew this would never work out,"

"Hm? Did you say something?"

He'd almost blurted it out, but decided it was best wait till Rei find it out himself. It wouldn't be pretty, considering the fact that Rei didn't ask to be sucked into their lives and would probably beat the living daylights out of him.

He wondered who was the most foolish one? Him or his boss. If anything goes out of hand, he's willing to sacrifice a limb for Rei's sake. After all, who likes being toyed around without knowing? And though, Rei might be a bit harsh and way too serious for his own good, Takao liked his flat mate. Rei was a perfect example of someone who was earnest about everything he did and say, without trying to wound anyone, unknowingly.

The guy doesn't brag about his talents that is brought out by the low self-esteem he had for his own abilities. Always saying that the women back in his village were better cooks while he was mediocre.  
The guy doesn't brag about his looks. Sure, he has the handsome looks, the charms and this healthy aura surrounding him; it doesn't look like he cares much of how he should appear.  
The guy doesn't even talk about himself, only preferring to let others do the talking while he lends a comforting ear.

Rei seemed oblivious to the fact that most people are envious of his fortune. His fortune to have a knack for everything. Like a born genius, but not really one.

"No. Nothing,"

His head hurt. He wondered if it's because it had been a long time since he had last thought about anything this deep before.

"Oh... I must be hearing the neighbours. How do they cook so many huge things in one little wok?"

Takao smiled faintly as he noted the awkwardness in Rei's arm movement. Every time Rei flailed with his arm—he always does that when he was excited—Takao noticed him twitch and bite back a hiss before pulling the arm back as if nothing happened.  
His flat mate's seating position was awkward too. Rei liked sitting cross-legged on the carpet in front of the TV. He could sit that position for hours without complaining about "crawling ants" lack of blood streaming to his toes. Tonight, his flat mate had switched his leg position ever few seconds: stretching out his legs, pulling them back, spreading them, crossing them, uncrossing them...

Did someone beat his flat mate up at school and leave a few broken bones behind?

Here goes nothing...

"Rei—do you need a doctor to look at your injuries?" Takao spoke up at last. "I mean, I can always ask for Kai's assistance. He may be a cold bastard, but he is simply the only doctor I can entrust you wi-_Ow! Hey!_"

A pillow had struck him squarely in the face.

Rei looked serious again. Gone was the childish personality Takao had just witnessed. His flat mate was currently glaring at an unseen spot in the carpet, scowling. "No doctors. I am my own doctor," Having said that one, he scrambled on his feet and slammed the bathroom door behind him.

Takao could only blink stupidly at the door. What did he say?

**- END 3. Beginning C: Rei -**

(To be continued in: 4. Beginning D: Rei)

Notes:  
  
**- 5:15 AM **– I'm not exactly sure how early Japanese colleges begin, so I based it on my school.  
- School's name – took the school's name of "**Darling, I love you**" (yaoi manga by _Ioka Noeru_; illustrated by _Mamahara Erie_) except for the "Bakuten" part. **XD  
**- It's only natural to write Rei's name in Chinese (the Japanese call the Chinese words kanji: **金李**) because of his origin. However, when I looked up the cast at one of BB's official Japanese sites, his name is written in katakana (they look mostly like sticks, commas stuff: **レイ**).  
_- Dodge ball _– I'm not sure what the official name is of this game. It's where two groups are formed in the field. The member who has the ball should aim at the opposing group their legs and try to hit them.  
**- "Good morning, Doctor"** – uhmm... it's still the same as calling "_Ohayou gozaimasu, sensei!_". People with certain respectable jobs are all addressed as "sensei". In anime, we mostly see doctors and teachers being addressed as _"-sensei"._  
- The part where Kai roughly treats Rei's bruises is based on one of my own experiences. Whenever I get bruised here and there, I always rub something alcoholic or rub medicine on the bruise. And hard, too. If one of my parents get the chance to treat my bruises, they're surely going to rub as harsh as Kai had on Rei's. **T.T  
**  
**TheNekoTalks:**

- Re-wrote this chapter so many times that I felt like re-creating the idea and re-do the beginning. (Had to write this without looking over my notebook; so please forgive the stagnated text I'd written so far). ARGH! I hate it when my stories don't want to go along with my ideas. Hopefully, "**Catyph**" (my newest BB fanfiction—please look forward to it **:gets beaten up:**) is more willing to let me do what I want. There's one thing I have to say about Rei's character here—_(anata wa dare?)_ who the hell are you, you—you—you **_Rei impersonator_**?****

Thank you for taking your time to read! This is longer than the previous chapter **♥♥♡♡✩**

.:Nekocin:.


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